LONDON – The Colombo Group's new dance club, The Nest, occupies the site of the former Bardens Boudoir in Dalston, East London. Co-owner Steve Ball and general manager Matt Monhardt turned to Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL) for a flexible sound system, specifically requesting that MSL use Martin Audio components for the job.
Ball and Monhardt credited Martin Audio gear as "the best sound system we've heard in club situations," citing "the impact and precision" and also "flexible zoning, allowing as much bass as possible on the tiny dance floor, while at the same time enabling the music level to be adjusted at the bar and seating area. MSL has enabled us to do that."
The Nest presents live music from Monday to Thursday, and on weekends, there's live music until 10 p.m. After that, the venue reopens as a dance venue from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. "This allows us to be more flexible and bring in different indie crowds," said Monhardt.
Ball and co-owner Riz Shaikh invested more than $790,000 developing the empty shell, with Shaikh redesigning the rectangular concrete basement, offset with new neon signs and adding bars and alcoves.
At the same time, MSL worked out the challenge of helping the venue sound its best for both conventional live music and, later in the evening, hard-surround dance sound, with the concrete floor isolating the heavy thud of a pair of Martin S218+ (two 18") subs.
By designing the venue into three zones, controlled in a BSS Soundweb London DSP environment, MSL could ensure that customers in the alcove seating, or at the newly-appointed bar, would be spared full exposure to the potent system.
Handling the stage and dance floor sound respectively is a pair each of flown Martin Audio Blackline F12+ and F15+ multi-angle enclosures, with the S218+s handling the sub frequency extension. These are driven by a pair of Martin Audio MA5.2K amplifiers.
For the bar area, MSL used Martin Audio's AQ range, including eight of the architectural AQ6 (6.5") enclosures along with and AQ212 (2 x 12") sub and AQ215 (2 x 15") sub, to deliver a more hi-fi sound at lower SPL.
Elsewhere, a pair of Blackline F10+ enclosures provide the DJ with monitoring at the highly-specified front end, while at the other end of the spectrum, four of Martin Audio's C6.8T ceiling speakers have been installed in the bathrooms.
For signal transmission, MSL chose Power over Ethernet (PoE) and VDC cable.
For more information, please visit www.martin-audio.com.
